After 99″ of snow in less than a month, I’ve still yet to have a powder day at Jay this season. But today certainly got me closer to that designation.

A few inches fell overnight on top of the frozen crusty layer from Friday’s minor rain/freeze event. It was less than hoped for, but it still made for my best turns of the season. Uphill traffic was considerably less my last tour. I started Tramside and skinned up Ullr’s.

Turns were variable but mostly soft, with a bit of powder on top of a crusty base layer with weird undulations. The base depth was sufficient for glades. So, after JFK, I decided to try Everglade.

I rarely ski Everglade during the season. Much like Beaver Pond, Everglade is very well known and gets traffic that outshines its better qualities. It is grossly overrated.

But when conditions are good and not scrapped with massive bumps, it really is a nice line. Unfortunately, it dumps out into a flat out that parallels Kokomo. Some water bars were still open in the flats, but solid navigation had me out of the woods without any incidents.

Overall, it was a fine tour. The upper mountain is in mid-winter form despite the calendar date. That may change due to a Thanksgiving warm-up. But a foot or two of snow may follow for next weekend. Perhaps my first powder day of the season is just around the corner.

The skiing today was a fair bit better than my previous trip to Jay. However, work and other obligations continue to get in the way of powder skiing. My ski days continue to come in-between the storm and the frozen consolation periods.

Snow conditions were variable with a few inches on top of a crusty, frozen base layer. Dealing with turns from previous skier traffic etched into the base layer was a challenge.

Each turn presented a different type of snow surface, sometimes powdery and sometimes crusty and sometimes both. Weighting and unweighting turns became quite challenging as snow surfaces were unpredictable.

The real story is the overwhelming quantity of people uphilling. While skinning Ullr’s, I counted over 30 other people within eye-shot. I usually do not see 30 people in total, let alone all at once while skinning.

I got to thinking “I hope no one does anything stupid.” I mentally admonished myself for self-talk that was critical of other skiers (lest I start throwing stones in a glass house). But I would later learn that my gut feeling proved to be justified.

Following a number of incidents (including an injured skier, property damage, and skiers intruding on snowmaking operations), JPR released a statement calling for better decision making and obeying the simple requests of staying away from operations.

We are very fortunate that JPR allows uphilling during all times of the year, including early season and late season. You could even say they encourage it, since they make social media posts showing skiers and riders earning turns when the lifts are closed.

That permission could easily be revoked. Personally, I appreciate having green and yellow lights to uphill at a closed ski area. Although I occasionally do it, I prefer not to outlaw uphill at areas that prohibit the practice.

In either case, I always avoid mountain ops, even if it means deviating from my established plan (which happened last week: I adjusted my skin route to a less desirable option while other uphillers skinned past mountain ops using heavy machinery to work on a water bar).

Let’s hope this early season wake up call leads to better decision making, avoiding mountain operations, and more conservative early season descent choices.